Fraternizing
by Dewittypinkerton
Summary: Battling crime, saving lives... that was the easy part. The most taxing part on the team would be learning how to live together.
1. Chapter 1

Fraternizing 

_**Battling crime, saving lives... that was the easy part. The most taxing part on the team would be learning how to live together. **_

~On Female Leaders~

* * *

Following the defeat of The Brotherhood of Evil, the core team realized that it wouldn't be prudent to have all Titans centered in Jump City, they thereby took it upon themselves to set up other bases of operation. By setting up Titans North, employing more members into Titans East, and having others pair up and scatter themselves among the world. Robin would've praised this easy bureaucratic transition... If it weren't for the fact that he continually found members outside of the original 5 lingering in his tower. Almost every. Other. Week. The others were grateful for the company, and it wasn't like Robin was antisocial (he enjoyed sparring and catching up with Speedy as well as hearing of Kid Flash's 'escapades') but he couldn't afford to have his team grow dependent on extra help.

_Dum, dum, dum._

Heaving a sigh at the pattering of feet, certainly belonging to an extra pair of legs not predominant in his tower, he focused on the clippings in front of him. He attempted to silence the external noises as he tried to draw conclusions on how exactly Dr. Light managed to 'recruit' a few of the previously frozen criminals...

A sharp knocking took him from his musings and he stared at the door in mild disbelief. His slight apprehension towards people interrupting him in the evidence room was well-known by official and honorary members alike. As he made his way to the door, he ran a schema in his mind to try and deduct who it could be, most points leading him to believe it was Starfire.

He was disappointed.

Expecting his beautiful alien princess, he was instead met with a lanky pale boy with spiky blonde hair. Clad in orange samurai armor.

"Lightning? What are you doing here?" He tried to hide his irritation, he wasn't sure if the teen was perceptive enough to catch on to it.

"Well... um, I've come to request a favor from you; masked-spiky haired one." He and his brother had a nasty habit of not adhering to conventional names, he realized. And as if his own spiky hair were any worse than the electric teen.

"I'm listening. And please, it's Robin" he gritted.

"As you know, my brother and I don't have a base per say... We just sort of drift along where we can.."

Robin nodded. "Because you and your brother are living, breathing conduits of forces of nature. Trying to contain you would result in fluctuations in the natural rain and storms that occur." He remembered a previous conversation involving their refusal to join with an official team. It suited him fine, he just thought that social interaction would be good for the brothers, who had lived isolated from humans for so much of their life.

Lightning cleared his throat. "Well, um, we may have not been entirely truthful..."

A widening of eyes was followed by a surprised "What?"

"We don't really function well, you know 'taking orders,'" Little sparks came off his quotation mark mimicking fingers. "We just told you that to get out of confining us to a team."

Robin only glared at him.

"But!" He held his hands out and Robin had to congratulate himself for being able to intimidate a supernatural being that embodied the powerful force of electricity. "After providing some assistance to Titans North, under the leadership of the short, pink-haired one,"_ Kole. Was it really that hard to remember names? _"We've decided to we wish to be formerly with the team."

Robin mused through his hair, sighing exasperatedly. Fickleness was indeed a universal trait shared by all teenagers, be they alien, half-breeds, super powered, or supernatural.

"It's no big deal Lightning, just check in with Kole, and she has the authority to officially induct you. Normally I'd be a bit more ticked off, but thanks for actually coming to me about this instead of just, uh, how'd you phrase it when we first met..." His index finger and thumb rubbed his chin in thought, thinking back a year ago. "Ah that's right," He cleared his throat before adopting a sinister, higher pitched tone. "Doing whatever we _pleeease!_"

"Did I really talk like that?" He seemed a bit self-conscious of his own words now.

"It's the evil thing, when you're committing crime, the tone just kinda finds you."

"Glad to be rid of it then, Thanks then... Robin." He had to smile at that, seeing eyes twinkle a bit before continuing. "I'll be sure to notify my brother of the good news!" And with that, his legs unified into a single lightning bolt and he sped down the length of the corridor.

Making his way back into the evidence room Robin mused of the idea of Thunder and Lightning joining a team. It'd do them good to become more in-tune with the everyday life of typical human beings, bonding and learning to trust people. The whole dilemma that occurred that stormy night came from inactivity taking its' toll and lack of consideration of others. This way, they'd make more friends, extending from their respect from Beast Boy, and they'd do the team good. Titans North needed more members anyway. And with Kole being the leader, all the official paperwork in admitting them would have to be done by her and sent to the JLA for their records, not heaving any workload onto him. So really, it was no trouble.

But needless to say, he could do without another interaction like that, it was much more pressing to try and determine how exactly the 'Good Doctor' became bright enough to reverse engineer a-

Another sharp tapping interrupted his thoughts and walking a bit quicker this time to the door, expecting Thunder to question him on his brothers whereabouts (but even this time still keeping his fingers crossed for Starfire).

He was again surprised.

"Hey...Robin. How's it going? So listen Jericho and I have been hanging around with Titans East lately and we were wondering if-"

Robin just stared blankly at Herald making his case, an enthusiastically nodding Jericho at his heel beaming with bright eyes.

_That's it. I'm getting a memo out there this week._

"Um guys?" He interrupted Herald in midst of his retelling of a major battle with Steamroller and looked at Robin attentively. "I appreciate the gesture of letting me know, but it's not my call. Take it up with Bumblebee if you want to join up."

"Really?"

Robin sighed and allowed a small smile before confirming with a "Yeah."

"Dude, Nice!" He and Jericho traded a high five before Herald blew into his signature trumpet, a portal materializing into the opposite wall. He and Jericho gave one last wave to Robin before jumping into it, it dissolving out of thin air following a second after they took their last step in Titans Tower.

"Man, everyone is really eager to be joining teams, I had no idea the allure of it attracted so many people." Robin thought aloud as he returned to the desk, he really was flattered that everyone saw him with so much credibility that they felt the need to go to him for such matters. That they saw him as such a figure of authority to go to him on matters not even pertaining to him. He was grateful for the respect, but really, he wanted people to realize they were all equals under the Titans. He remembered that he had similar problems when Beast Boy and he had first met. But what he wouldn't give for some of that old fashioned military obedience he once held...

He shook the thought away, the story of Steamroller fighting Titans East that Herald seemed keen on telling him springing him into thought of the intentions of Doctor Light. He'd only been recruiting reckless villains, who only seemed smart enough to fight cleverly or dirty and knew the precise way to bring massive amounts of property damage. Maybe it was all a smoke screen, a distraction to keep him from seeing the clear, bigger pictu-

Another set of sharp knockings on his door resulted in a low growl from Robin and as he stomped his way over to the door, he hoped that whoever was on the other side was Starfire, otherwise, things wouldn't get too pretty.

Well.

He did ask for a 'Starfire.'

Robin found himself face to a heavy, green military coat-clad chest, a bold red star brimming in the center. _Starfire indeed... _He thought with slight amusement.

"Comrade Robin? I was hoping to find you here."

"Seems like everyone is. What's up?" He tilted his head back to try and meet the blank green gaze. The Russian soldiers' eyebrows furrowed before he continued.

"Well, as you know, I'm typically stationed in Russia, to keep those close to me safe... As to make up for the rampage that monster went on.."

"Uh huh."

"Besides the petty theft or occasional vandal, there's no real threat to anyone there."

"Right."

"...And, well... I've been getting pretty close to Kole and Gnarrk lately... and I'm just wondering if-"

Robin stopped him right there.

"Talk. To. Kole. About. It." Each word came through strained and pushed through gritted teeth. "It's not my place to ASSIGN teams anymore, they're already set up! If you want to join one, talk to the respective leader." After forcing out that curt statement, he slammed his fist on the key pad, the door swishing closed before Red Star could reply with a "My thanks, comrade Robin." His muffled voice still reached past the steel doors, to his irritation.

_Honestly, what's so difficult about talking with Kole and Bumblebee. They're both pretty down to earth, they're understanding. Why are they so hesitant to go straight to the leader? Can the thought of possible rejection be that-_

And just like that, something clicked. Rejection. Girls. Pretty.

And a sly smirk made itself unto his face as he realized _exactly_ the kind of game they were playing... Only now did he realize Lightning's faint blush as he mentioned Kole. How happy Herald seemed on getting to spend more time with his new leader. And how flustered Red Star seemed as he tried to make his point.

_Well then, this ought to be interesting_...

And with that, he finally filed away the papers on Doctor Light for his investigation. Then he set off to find a certain metal teen, he and Cyborg had _lots _of blackmail to get started on...


	2. Chapter 2

**A.N. Just testing the waters of an idea I've had for a while. Some chapters will have continuity associated with it, others won't. I'll be switching along the seasons, so even though these first chapters are post season 5, later on; there may be moments that could've been earlier. I'm very anal of proofreading, so please let me know of grammatical mistakes, I do want to get better. Hope you enjoy and please: R&R! **

**Also I'm a proud supporter of BB/Rae, I just like it being done with ALOT of hesitation and progression and of course: teenage awkwardness.**

Fraternizing

~Obliviousness~

* * *

His alarm finally clattered to the ground by the fourth ring and Beast Boy dragged himself out of bed, yawning heavily and stretching to regain composure.

_10:30? I never wake up this early... _Beast Boy was content to take as much time as possible taking it easy, contrary to common belief of his hyperactive nature. Rubbing the remnants of sleep in his eyes, he made his way to the common room, hoping the Lucky Charms could still be scavenged at this time.

As he trudged through the halls, his ears picked up more noise around the tower than was usually, not much mind you... But definitely an expansion from five teenagers. He noticed a lot of the honorary members liked to drop in from time to time, to spend time in the famous base of operations.

It suited him just fine, a lot of the members looked up to him, flattered him on his 'heroic and selfless deeds.' It was embarrassing at times, the way he saw it, everyone did as much work as he did (most of the time). But somehow, something in his speech, in his rallying of the troops, in keeping the Teen Titans fighting; everyone saw something great in that.

He grinned to himself, his signature fang prodding the skin slightly. _Maybe I'll have to work the whole hero-worship next time_ he mused.

As the double doors hissed, Beast Boy squinted as too much light meet his sensitive eyes. Relying on his mental picture of the room and his nose, he maneuvered himself to the kitchen area, opening his eyes only when he felt the warmth of the light on the left side of his person.

Leaning against the island he grabbed the cereal(whole wheat at his own urging, a boys gotta grow right?), and fluidly opened the refrigerator door with his foot, reaching with his free hand to grab the soy milk. He picked the cleanest looking bowl, turned around to face the island and finally poured a considerable amount of 'magically delicious' oats and marshmallows into it, following it with his preferred milk. Not looking back, he threw the near empty box sideways unto the table, a known symbol of it being free to be eaten straight from the box, and shifted that same hand into an octopus tentacle, grappling unto the refrigerator handle and prying it open to allow his free _normal_ hand to place the milk inside quickly. Shutting and door and letting go of it with a loud _pop_. He finally raised his head to look at the expanse of the common room, his eyes well-adjusted at this point.

He found himself looking at a very amused face.

"You always put on a show makin' breakfast?" The voice was soft, hints of an accent in it. Kinda English, he guessed, if his fights with Mad Mod were anything to go by.

The face was very pale, silver almost, bangs of black and red framing it. Near her neck/upper chest area was a pale "A."

Argent. Beast Boy didn't know her personally (with all the new-found members, it was hard to get on a first name basis with everyone, er code name... alias, whatever.), but heard of her bravery in the fight and the good she's done with Titans North.

But seeing as though everything he knew about this girl was second knowledge or on her file, and that he had no meetings with her prior to this; he responded the only way he knew how.

"Huh?"

A chuckle came from her pale lips, an upturn of her mouth before she retorted.

"I'm talkin' about that entertainment you went through just to pour yourself a bowl of cereal. Seems a bit much, don' t it?"

"Well, I wasn't expecting someone to just be here and stay silent the entire time, no 'good morning' to warn me of an audience?" Number one way to deal with people you don't really know, bring humor into it.

Argent raised an eyebrow. "You're the one who lives 'ere, thought you'd be the one to make me feel welcome with such greetin's."

Beast Boy rolled his eyes, a habit picked up from Raven, and extended his hand.

"Don't think we've properly met, I'm Beast Boy, professional hero, resident joker, and all around Master of all things Awesome."

She took it and shook it lightly.

"Argent. And I've talked with Cyborg and Raven enough to challenge two of those statements."

Beast Boy returned the quip with an indignant scoff. "Talking with the new kids about me behind my back, eh? I knew my so- called friends were mutinous..."

"Perhaps you should get to your cereal then, can't deal with such treacherous deeds on an empty stomach." Argent gave a short laugh.

Beast Boy decided he liked Argent just from that three-minute interaction, anyone willing to play along seemed to be okay in his book.

"So Argent, for fear that you'll just continue to stare at me without my consent while I begin eating... Tell me about yourself."

Argent regarded him with only an upturned eyebrow, in response Beast Boy took a spoonful of cereal and jammed into his mouth, chewing slowly and staring Argent dead in the eye.

That was enough to make her snort.

"I thought you'd be more inclined to barrage me with jokes."

"Wait until after I've had my fill of magical deliciousness. Unfortunately, Raven wakes up earlier than I do, so I'll have to rely on Lucky Charms." He replied, a few remnants of cereal in his mouth.

"Oh, cute."

A swallow was followed by a tongue licking the inside of his mouth to scrape off any straggling bits. He retorted with a toothy(fang-y) grin. "I try."

As he took plunged the spoon into the bowl he heard Argent begin. "Well, to answer a thought that probably crossed your mind, I was born and raised in Hamilton, New Zealand-" _Ah-ha! New Zealand, his guess was pretty accurate... _"And I really appreciate your gesture at getting to know some of us a lil' bit more."

Beast Boy swallowed again. "It's no problem, anything to try and win some members to take down those _traitors_." He added in with false contempt. "I, mean, with the rate you're gaining, I'll consider you my first mate within the hour!"

Argent laughed lightly, her eyes closed. "Oh, well then, aren't you charmin'? How can I pass this up?"

"You really can't." He regarded as if the knowledge was indisputable. "And you were saying about New Zealand?"

"I'll give you the Cliff Notes about myself if you really want it."

"Fine by me, two things you should know off bat. One; I love meeting new people. Two; if its not about teenagers gaining the power to turn into animals or filled with pictures; I'm probably Cliff Noting it."

He could really get used to genuine laughter at the things he said.

* * *

Raven's day was starting off pretty well, if she was being honest. Cyborg had woken up earlier than usual, so she managed to intercept at breakfast and get him to just make and eat his bacon and eggs and not await Beast Boy to partake in their usual morning bickering. Grabbing a biscuit for herself and brewing her herbal tea for the day, they had pleasant conversation over, _surprisingly enough_, cars. Ever since her insistence to help him rebuild the T-car after its first total, they had made a hobby out of it. Every now and then, she'd help him buff out the scratches, check up on the transmission, reload the canisters used by the weaponry, and all the like. Other times, she'd just find a stool and sit in, reading contentedly. Contrary to what others believed, she wasn't antisocial.

She was just picky of who she chose to be 'social' with.

Also, despite what others commonly thought, she was fine reading with noise around, she only required silence whilst her meditations. She'd admit that the whir of machinery, the fluids flowing along... it helped her focus. Because, honestly, if she tried to read with dead silence, it would drive her _crazy_. Needless to say, despite her acceptance of noise, Beast Boy's jokes and pleas for her join him for video games had no place during her reading sessions. But a low whir here and there? One-sided conversations with a piece of machinery? Or rarely enough, light conversation with a certain merman who frequented the garage now and then?

It was fine with her.

Today was a good day as any other to read of the tales of demigods. No visitors came, so the only sounds where the flip of paper, the sound of Cyborg's tools, and soft words of affirmation that he thought would pass Raven's notice.

_Humph. Boys and their tech..._

Although Percy Jackson was slightly below her typical reading level (she did normally favor works from Orwell, Gaiman, Bronte, and Rowling), she had to admit there was an allure to the mythical world being a reality. And she'd be lying if she said Jackson wasn't pretty likable. She was glad she took off the cover though, Beast Boy had watched the movie and she was certain she'd receive non-stop attention from him for it.

Cyborg had finished his work and went on the common room, claiming to be eager to get to lunch. Raven insisted that she'd catch up, and once she reached the death of the Medusa, she figured it was a good enough spot to end for now.

A quieter breakfast, a pleasant conversation with the resident metal man, and a good book reading session with no interruption. Raven didn't ask for much to have a good day, but it seemed most times, it was unattainable. She supposed she had Beast Boy to blame for that.

Its not that she hated the him, far from it in most cases. Other than Cyborg, the changeling was one of the titans she closest to. They did have 'moments' he didn't ruin from time to time and she had to admit their banter and teasing had become as much a component of normalcy as did her meditation and tea drinking. She even felt the pangs of irritation imminent in her teammates when they bickered. She had to admit, it was with some enjoyment that she felt she could give the others a taste of how she felt so often. The banter was something she really did enjoy having with the green teen. But other times...well...Not so much. He was just so...tiring.

Tiring was a polite way to word it.

Her empathetic powers were also to blame she guessed. Beast Boy's joy just wore her out; it left a taste akin mint in her mouth, sharp and always grabbing her focus. She couldn't afford to lose her focus so often, even with the defeat of Trigon, she still had to keep her feelings in check, she was ...reluctant to be open about her feelings, even now without fear of her Father to abuse it. His eagerness came to her as if it were copper, always catching her off guard and strong enough to overwhelm her.

Each person had their own unique _taste_, she thought it was creepy to think it like that but it was the only way to describe it. Often enough similar emotions came to her the same when felt mostly as a whole, but there was always a few who drifted from the norm.

That being said, Beast Boy did have his good days; the days where he was content with light conversation (she was surprised to see how interested he was in plays, ranging from Shakespeare to Bernard Shaw) sprinkled with friendly banter. But most days, he'd pull all stops to try and pry her from her shell (dyed blue and with a hood attached) with aspirations to get her to give video games a shot or watch a few of the mind numbing programs he favored.

He wasn't giving up on her though, not leaving her alone. And she was so grateful for that.

She entered the common room, the metal doors opening with a swish, and she was overcome with the taste of dry cocoa. The intensity of it actually made her flinch.

Present in the room was Cyborg, helping himself to a sandwich presumably filled to the brim with meat. His feelings of calm and contentment came to her in waves of honey, although it was horribly overwhelmed by the other two.

There was head full of green hair and one full of red and black strands where she expected spiked black tips and following red tresses. Beast Boy and...and Argent?

Huh.

She recognized the feeling as companionate affection, the levels of it were nearly on par with that of Robin and Starfire in the first few weeks of their formation (and similar to the readings she got from Beast Boy when she hung out with him). She was pretty surprised, she hadn't known Beast Boy was so comfortable with Argent, she had just recently started talking with the girl herself. Judging from the stories she told of Beast Boy and her reactions, she guessed the changeling never had one on one time with the punk girl.

Cyborg took her from her musings. "Hey Rae!" he bellowed. "You in the mood to eat?"

Her heritage affected her diet in a huge part, she didn't need much for sustenance. She replied with a shake of the head and a glare for the nickname.

"Ha-ha, fine then... Hungry Rae-Ven?"

"The answer is still no." She made her way to the table Cyborg made himself at home at, her gaze settling on the two speaking to one another animatedly. She regarded the back of their heads with an upturned eyebrow and turned her head to Cyborg.

The tin man only shrugged, continuing to chew at his sandwich, "They were like that when I came here."

"And she isn't tired of him yet? We should probably add exceptional mental endurance to her file."

Cyborg snorted and Beast Boy finally decided to acknowledge the pair by flipping on the couch to face them.

"Hey! People generally like me!" His face indignant to the quip.

"And now he decides we exist."

"BB, you can't blame us for trying to get a rise, you didn't even respond when I came to make my Giga meat sandwich... you _hate _the smell of that thing, man."

Beast Boy adopted a deep look of concentration. "You see friends, it's impolite to let such matters, however pressing, come in the way of entertaining a fair young lady."

The soft giggling threw her off, and she noticed even Cyborg's eye had widened.

Beast Boy looked to his side with a grin and soon, the pale hybrid had her smiling face looking their way too.

"Not to mention, he's still bitter at the acts of a couple of subversive scalawags." Her accent mixed with a poor imitation of a pirate made Cyborg chortle and Beast Boy have a fit of chuckles.

"Cyborg, this is bad. They have inside jokes." Raven said dryly. "This is some scheme of an overly aspiring villain I'm sure."

"Oh geez, thanks Rae. I make a friend in a day and something has to be wrong."

Raven only stared.

"Okay, I see your point. But seriously, Argent and I are cool." As if to confirm this, he lifted his fist to her, and she tapped it with her own.

"See?"

"I'm certainly convinced."

"You see, Argent? A bunch of mutinous scurvy dogs." His voice growled in a better, but still pretty bad, pirate imitation.

"Shall we have 'em walk off the plank?"

"Nah, not the best suggestion lass. The dark one has flung me into the ocean too many times to allow it to happen to 'er."

"Dudes, stop it." Cyborg said, covering his face with his hand. "It's _soo _bad!" A few choked chuckles escaped his lips.

"Between my humor and Argent's willingness to blindly follow-"

"Hey!"

"Sorry- We're unstoppable in regards to making people laugh!"

"Well how about you two save the comedy act for later, I'm sure Starfire would be eager to catch up with you Argent, in time for lunch."

"Yeah, how much longer you gonna stay for Arge? You could play video games or watch movies with me and Cy."

He proceeded to flip himself over the couch and wag his eyebrows at Raven.

"And our resident spell-caster if she's feeling up to it?'

"Pass." She couldn't place it but she just started feeling a little irritated for no particular reason.

"And- didn't see that coming." Cyborg quipped as he noticed the changeling's ears drop.

"Come one, Rae, Arge is dark and she's willing to have some fun-" He gestured towards an enthusiastically nodding punk. "You guys could be dark and have fun together!"

Raven only switched her stare between Beast Boy and Argent before making her decision.

"Pass." She pulled out her book to shut herself from the conversation.

An exasperated sigh and then: "Well, it was worth a try, Cy you down?"

"At beating you in view of an audience? You bet!"

Beast Boy sputtered some retort while Argent laughed; it was soft, had a musical quality to it.

She found herself, for some indiscernible reason, jealous of it.

The boys were polite enough to decrease the video game's volume, it didn't stop their own cacophonous ramblings, but the thought really did count.

The game ended with Cyborg winning 15 to 13 in some fighting game, the green elf maintaining his friend had cheated, even with how close together their scores were. At this time, she decided to take a break from reading of Perseus' disagreements with a God of War to see the situation. The three were talking excitedly of video games, Argent proved herself very knowledgeable on the subject.

"Personally, I like it, the atmosphere is awesome and is scary without being too much. And you know... good looking badass writers are fun to look at..."

"Dude, your only weapon for some of it is a _flashlight_, that's crazy."

"Beast Boy, you're so bad at handling horror games. Bioshock wasn't even that scary and you screamed almost all the time."

"Dude, that guy just came out of _nowhere_! The number one response _would_ be screaming and shot gun-ing his head off."

"Ha, you boys like Bioshock? That Infinite, though..."

There was a solemn silence as both the tin man and changeling just nodded their heads

"Dope."

"Epic."

"And that ending-"

"I KNOW!"

"And you find out she-"

"Ah, Yeah! And that the scientist dudes actually-"

"And that Booker, the _entire _was really just-"

The three video game savants just groaned and made exclamations. The following laughter from the group was interrupted by a familiar ringing coming from Argent.

"Ah damn. Give me a moment, guys."

Argent pulled out her communicator and backed up a bit, speaking into it without the boys quite so near.

Beast Boy could still probably hear both ends of the conversations, but Raven didn't bother vocalizing it.

"Yeah I'm still here- But things have been so- I know, I know, you can't predict those sorts of things... But we have more guys covering for me. Uh huh. Right..." a sigh "Yeah, I understand." Another pause of her listening intently "I'm making my way over, don't worry."

She closed the device and faced the pair with a grim smile, "Well guys, all good things must come to an end."

"Aw, really? Man girl, it was fun hanging with you." A metal palm met with hers.

"Always a pleasure Cy, even if you are a back-stabbing scalawag."

Raven actually smirked at that, she raised her book defensively to hide it.

"It was cool getting to know ya' Argent," Beast raised his hand to meet hers "Sorry Kole got ticked off for you spending so much time and-"

"Nah, it's fine, BB." The redhead (with some black) grinned and grasped his hand. "Maybe some other time, right?"

"Yeah, I'd love to spend so more time, Arge~" A wag of his eyebrows and Raven couldn't help but notice Argent's face adopted a shade that matched her hair and skirt a bit better.

"Oh, well, yeah,um... that's nice, I'd, uh, I'd really like that." She caught Cyborg's gaze as he had a sly smile as he nodded his head toward the stammering teen.

"Keep in touch?"

"I will." And with that, Argent made her way to one of the flier accessible windows in the common room, and with a last wave she took off into the sky.

* * *

A sigh "Poor girl."

Cyborg regarded Beast Boy with an up-turned eyebrow. "So you did catch on?"

Beast Boy had a lock of mock-offended. "Oh please Cyborg, I may not be earning any PhDs soon, but I'm not blind. My eyesight is _considerably _better than 20/20, in fact."

Raven was reasonably surprised, Beast Boy didn't have a track record of being the most perceptive of Titans, despite his superhuman senses, many things, most obvious, tended to escape his notice. Her own empathy picked up on an extra 'something' from Argent, her empathy only had it compared with the cocoa sense associated with companionate love from earlier, but Cyborg's 'experience' confirmed it. The alien/human hybrid seemed to pick up a crush on the resident changeling.

"Wow, man can't believe I underestimated you."

"Well, dude, I can certainly relate to what she's going through."

Cyborg looked solemn for a moment, "Oh, I see man..."

"Yeah, so I intend to really become a close friend to her! I mean, she really seems like she needs one."

Raven's eyes widened and Cyborg just stared at his shorter, green friend.

"What?"

"I mean, you guys saw it. She was blushing, stammering on her words. She's a shy person, not too different our friend Raven here," he gestured to the empath with this thumb.

"Beast Boy, that's not what-"

"And she seemed so eager to hang out with me, I mean, things in the friend department isn't working so well back at home. Why else, would she have spent like the entire day here?"

"Beast Boy, if you shut up, you'll realize what Cyborg meant to say was-"

"And she and I really opened up to one another, y'know? I mean, she was more open about personal stuff, like her likes in a person, and favorite things and all that. Kinda weird, but she isn't full human you know, it was probably hard for her; growing up and all that."

"If you just stop and really think about it-"

"And to add, I think it'd be good for her to really-"

Realizing Beast Boy wasn't going to listen to reason, Raven just made her way out of the common room. It clearly being a losing battle in pointing out the obvious attraction Argent had for him. For some reason, she just felt really... irritated. She felt so ticked off on how Beast Boy ignored her in favor for Argent, how she hung on his every word, and how comfortable he seems to be with her.

It just unnerved her for some reason. She didn't know why. For some reason, her good day just turned into one with her usual irritation.

It wasn't like Argent was distrustful, she gave no indicator of being recruited by an obsessive metal masked man nor of being mind controlled by a so-called 'priest' of the Church of Blood.

In any case, he was perfectly oblivious of how Argent actually felt, which was good.

But why did it feel good?

Why did she feel more at peace that he only saw her as a friends and was unaware of any feelings higher than the fact? At the same time, why did she feel sick at her stomach recalling how close they were on the couch, or the encouraging pats she gave him in his 'battle royale' with Cyborg.

_It's really simple, you know._

Raven inwardly flinched at the soft voice. There was no one in the hallway...

_It's happened before. New girl comes in, grabs his attention, and you're left in the dust._

The voice felt so clear, as if there was someone right there with her, speaking at her, her empathetic powers picked up no trace of anyone there with her. And she realized she felt slight pangs of this feeling from before... When Terra was here. And so recently, when she was overtly critical of the way Argent laughed.

_It's a simple word, I'm pretty sure you and Beast Boy talked about a play involving it at one point. Something about it mocking the meat on which it feeds... eats? Whatever._

With that quote she realized what was speaking to her.

_Envy._

_And Bingo was her name-o._

**I credit the idea of Raven's empathy coming to her in taste to DementedPankcake's work _Love you Forever. _Which is AMAZING, seriously, do yourself a favor and read it.**


End file.
